Sports participants, whether professional or amateur, as well as spectators desire more information about the performance of an athlete. United States patent application, entitled “Apparatus and Methods for Determining Loft Time and Speed,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,146, by Peter Flentov, Dennis M. Darcy, and Curtis A. Vock, assigned to PhatRat Technology, Inc., filed on Nov. 21, 1994, issued on Jun. 3, 1997, and incorporated herein by reference provides some systems and methods for quantifying airtime and speed for athletic performance, especially in the sports of skiing and snowboarding.
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Application, entitled “Sport Monitoring System for Determining Airtime, Speed, Power Absorbed and Other Factors Such as Drop Distance,” PCT Publication No. WO 98/54581, by Curtis A. Vock, Dennis M. Darcy, Andrew Bodkin, Perry Youngs, Adrian Larkin, Steven Finberg, Shawn Burke, and Charles Marshall, assigned to PhatRat Technology, Inc., filed on Jun. 2, 1998, published on Dec. 3, 1998, and incorporated herein by reference provides some additional systems and methods for quantifying athletic performance.
However, athletes and spectators desire new, quantifiable performance metrics, enhanced events systems, and use of visual images. For example, currently photographers can be found on the ski slopes at either the top or the bottom taking pictures, which can be later purchased at the end of the day from the Lodge. Whilst these are usually good quality photographs, they are not action images. Needed are new methods and apparatus to record a users performance from an action point of view as well as for other perspectives, and to distribute these recorded still and video images and video for entertainment and training purposes.